Margaret is 52 with three grown children. For years, she lived with physical abuse and threats from her husband. After she insisted he move out, he threatened her and her family. Terrified, she called the police, who told her to get a stalking order. She didn’t know how to get one, so she contacted a domestic violence shelter. The shelter connected her with Legal Aid Services of Oregon. A LASO lawyer helped her get a protective order. This helped her to stay safe at work when her husband began stalking her there. Her lawyer also helped her get spousal support so she can complete a vocational program and become self-sufficient. Margaret said, “It was heaven-sent, being able to go to legal aid and get some help when I was between a rock and a hard place and had no money for a lawyer.”

Welcome to Legal Aid Services of Oregon

Legal Aid Services of Oregon (LASO) is a statewide non-profit organization that provides access to legal help for people to protect their livelihoods, their health, and their families. As a civil legal aid program, LASO assures fairness for all in the justice system, regardless of how much money you have. Through our own staff attorneys and hundreds of volunteers, LASO gives free legal help to thousands of low-income and elderly clients each year in matters relating to their physical safety, access to food and shelter, and other critical legal needs.

LASO’s mission is to achieve justice for the low-income communities of Oregon by providing a full range of the highest quality civil legal services.

Counties not listed below are served by other legal aid organizations. To find other legal aid offices in Oregon, click here. (This link will take you to the Oregon Law Help website.).

Allen and his wife Penny are both 63, with four grown daughters. After working for a large company for almost 20 years, Allen was suddenly “downsized.” He received unemployment benefits while he looked for a job, but after more than a year of searching, it became clear that they would soon be living off of Social Security. Since that wouldn’t be enough to pay the mortgage, he decided to cash out his pension and pay off the balance on their home. He reported the pension distribution to the state. Then they got some bad news: the Employment Department said he’d have to pay back all the unemployment benefits. Worse, Penny had just been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. That’s when Allen called Legal Aid Services of Oregon. LASO successfully challenged the case on the basis that Allen was a dislocated worker and this is an exception to retirement distributions. Today, the mortgage is paid off, and Penny is in remission. Allen said “We are just very thankful that legal aid existed, so we could get help in an area that we had no expertise in. [Representing myself] would have been like trying to cure myself of cancer without the help of physicians and surgeons.”